Stop The Presses, Mobile Surpasses Print Time Spent

Time spent on mobile phones per day on average increased 30% in 2011 to an hour and 5 minutes, easily more than the combined 44 minutes devoted to print magazines and newspapers combined, according to a new eMarketer estimate. Last year, time spent on mobile by U.S. adults was equal to the amount spent on print publications, at 50 minutes.

Time on the Internet was up 7.7% to nearly three hours a day (167 minutes), while traditional TV viewing—whether live or recorded on a DVR or DVD—continued to gain despite concerns about consumer “cord-cutting.” Time spent watching TV increased 10 minutes to 4 hours and 34 minutes a day. Radio listening dropped 2 minutes to 94 minutes a day in 2011. But even with that drop-off and the declines for newspapers and marines, total time spent with media increased to 11 hours and 33 minutes.

But share of time spent doesn’t necessarily translate into ad dollars. While TV accounts for 42.5% share of time spent, and commands an equal share of ad revenue, mobile claims 10% of consumers’ media time but only 1% of advertising. The Internet is more evenly balanced, getting a nearly 26% share of time and almost 22% of ad dollars.

I find the disproportionate amount of ad revenue (1%) that mobile brings in interesting—especially when considering that it accounts for 10% of consumers’ media time. There is a definite lag in monetization in the mobile industry. Unlike traditional broadcast, the mobile industry lacks the mechanisms to facilitate the distribution of ad content, to verify that that content has been viewed, or to distribute payment across the value chain. Once these mechanisms are in place, service providers will be in a position to gain from ad revenue the mobile industry generates.